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Luis Villa

@mcc @glyph I think that’s a little unfair to red hat (it’s just *more inconveniently* available now) but as a general matter, yeah. In particular:
1️⃣ copyleft has always been mostly in practice less legal contract, more social contract (though there are important exceptions); and
2️⃣ because it is ~ impossible to revise, over time copylefts almost always become *less* contractual because lawyers for users are constantly shrinking them, while lawyers for creators are rarely expanding them.

6 comments
Luis Villa

@mcc @glyph like, GPLv2 to lawyers in the late 1990s: THIS IS A BOOGEYMAN THAT WILL EAT YOUR CHILDREN.

GPLv2 to lawyers in the present: oh, yeah, I learned that in second-year copyright, including the standard weaknesses/limitations, and I know who to speed-dial if I need to get details on how to exploit it.

Exact same text, very different real world impact.

Luis Villa

@amgine @mcc @glyph @kat probably so often she’s tired of it, yes ;)

Glyph

@luis_in_brief @mcc I think the best understanding of the Red Hat issue is r0ml's "freedom from source code":

""" the largest Free Software business, Red Hat, has always had “freedom from source code” as its business model. A business pays Red Hat with the same licensing scheme as they would for any proprietary commercial operating system, in exchange for which Red Hat frees them from the inconvenience of needing to be exposed to the source code """

r0ml.medium.com/free-software-

@luis_in_brief @mcc I think the best understanding of the Red Hat issue is r0ml's "freedom from source code":

""" the largest Free Software business, Red Hat, has always had “freedom from source code” as its business model. A business pays Red Hat with the same licensing scheme as they would for any proprietary commercial operating system, in exchange for which Red Hat frees them from the inconvenience of needing to be exposed to the source code """

Glyph

@luis_in_brief @mcc bonus, a lot of the "bad actor" stuff in that essay is even funnier in light of xz

Farce Majeure

@glyph @luis_in_brief @mcc I think this is an interesting take, but ~wrongish in two ways. 1) probably the best understanding of how Red Hat conducts business is the parts of "Spacesuit" (mitpress.mit.edu/9780262015202 ) about sewing patterns as they relate to engineering drawings; 2) the customers' understanding of their relationship with source code varies quite a bit more than that.

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